CHAPEL HILL - For years, Duke has been one of the most effective defensive teams in the country simply by playing tough man-to-man defense and making its opponents take difficult shots.
Sunday, though, North Carolina was able to win the Tobacco Road showdown by scoring on Easy Street.
An astounding 76 of the Tar Heels' 86 points came either in the lane or from the charity stripe.
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Twenty-seven of North Carolina's 31 field goals came from inside the paint as the Tar Heel guards got in the lane whenever they pleased and often dished the ball off to Tyler Hansbrough or Brandan Wright for easy buckets.
Hansbrough had 26 points and Wright added 10 as the two combined to shoot 62.5 percent from the field. And although the Blue Devils have struggled all year containing quick guards, Sunday's loss to the Tar Heels was perhaps the most glaring example of that. Marcus Ginyard, Reyshawn Terry and Tywon Lawson all got to the rim with relative ease and subsequently combined for 40 points.
The Blue Devils' inability to stop penetration and slow down UNC's post players called for a dramatic adjustment to get back into the game.
As in the contest at Cameron, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski employed a four-guard lineup for much of the second half in an attempt to create some favorable matchups for the Blue Devils. In the first showdown earlier this season, UNC head coach Roy Williams matched Duke's small lineup by playing Terry at the second forward position.
Sunday, however, North Carolina kept its two star post players-Wright and Hansbrough-in the game and continued to dominate inside. Hansbrough had 18 of his points at the break, when he was at times being guarded by Gerald Henderson or even Greg Paulus on switches.
"You have to make adjustments to try to win the ballgame," Krzyzewski said. "I thought our kids did a good job in it, and then they did a good job in attacking it."
Krzyzewski was forced to go to the four-guard lineup in large part because he was getting such little production from Duke's four spot. Lance Thomas and Dave McClure combined for just two points in 16 first-half minutes, and Josh McRoberts committed six turnovers in the period as he received attention from both Tar Heel post players.
The small lineup gave the Blue Devils a chance to run their offense more effectively as Henderson, who carried Duke early on, and DeMarcus Nelson pulled UNC's second big man away from the basket. The Blue Devils shot 50 percent in the second half compared to just 35.3 percent in the first.
"I thought it helped us really, because they were just playing off our second big- it was like playing five against four," Krzyzewski said of the adjustment. "We thought that taking advantage of the fact that they had been playing us that way might give us a boost. Obviously you are going to get hurt defensively, but again we got it to [a two-point deficit] doing that."
Sunday was the Blue Devils' second straight game in which they struggled on defensively, as Krzyzewski said he was disappointed with the defensive execution after Wednesday's loss to Maryland. These teams may have caused problems for Duke's defense because they simply are better than the Blue Devils. But for a team that has relied for most of the season on its defense, Duke must improve on that end to have any hope of making a run at postseason success.
"There were periods where we played defense and periods where we didn't-and that can't happen," freshman Jon Scheyer said. "We need to play defense for 40 minutes. Especially with us, that's been one of our strong points this year, so we definitely need to stay focused on that come Thursday."
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